ANOTHER DAY.. ANOTHER HOME OFFICE COCK-UP Official suspended in criminal records fiasco

A SENIOR civil servant was suspended yesterday over the failure to keep tabs on 27,500 Brits who committed crimes abroad - after coming forward with information.

He was removed from his top-ranking Home Office post after bringing details of the debacle to the attention of an internal inquiry over the weekend.

A Home Office spokesman said: "An official at the Home Office has volunteered evidence in the last 48 hours which warrants further investigation.

"In the meantime this official has been suspended pending further inquiries."

The suspension came as it was revealed one of the criminals not entered on the Police National Computer went on to kill.

Dale Miller, 43, was convicted of manslaughter after the gangland shooting of Freddie Knights in Newcastle in 2000.

Details of a series of armed robberies he carried out abroad during the 90s were among records left in Home Office files, rather than being handed to cops.

Yesterday it emerged he was on a list of more than 500 serious offenders identified as dangerous whose details were not recorded on the police database.

Mr Knight's partner Grace Wilson, 43, said: "If the proper checks had been carried out, Freddie could still be alive today, and my sons would still have a father."

MPs will today grill Home Secretary John Reid over the crisis at Home Office Question Time. He has confirmed no sex offenders or paedophiles were cleared to work with children due to the error.

But it emerged four drug dealers and a people smuggler were given the OK when their offences did not show up in Criminal Records Bureau checks.

Mr Reid has also launched a "root-and-branch" review of criminal databases. But he is facing fierce criticism at his continued failure to publish a letter outlining how much he and junior ministers Joan Ryan and Tony McNulty were told about the problem.

The Association of Chief Police Officers sent it to Mr McNulty in October warning of difficulties and Mrs Ryan wrote back acknowledging receipt in December. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "It's his job to worry about protecting the public not his reputation."

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg called for an independent public inquiry.

A Home Office spokesman said killer Dale Miller would not have been supervised more closely even if the authorities had been aware of his foreign convictions.